The Reaper and The Angel
by Ryu the Swordsman
Summary: This is the story of two other players trapped inside SAO. Follow former beta testers Rufure and Kaitlyn as they fight for their lives inside the SAO death game. Story will feature mostly OCs and may reference other characters. Rated T for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. Welcome to my first SAO fic. I'm writing this with the help of Daughter of the TARDIS 11. I hope you all like it.**

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><p>'<em>Finally I got it' <em>Thought Rufure as he set up his NerveGear. '_It's been forever since I did the beta tests. I'd almost forgotten the game existed.' _Laying down on his bed he heard his older brother leaving for baseball practice. He knew it was now or never.

"Link start!" He called out and he was transported into Sword Art Online.

"Okay first off," Rufure said as he hit the options screen. "Language: English; Weapon: Sword; Account: Rufure; and that ought to do it".

"Welcome to Sword Art Online," buzzed the system. Opening his eyes Rufure found himself in the Village of Beginnings.

"Finally I'm back!" Rufure shouted. He relished the extra height of his avatar and the slightly longer hair. Knowing right where he wanted to go first, Rufure took off running through the streets. He passed through the weapons bazaar where new players were gathering to trade their base weapons in for something stronger. Knowing he needed practice before a new weapon, Rufure headed straight to the plains on the outskirts of the city where the monsters spawned so he could get some experience. As soon as arrived at the plains, Rufure noticed he was the only player there.

"Well. More experience and col for me," he mused to no one in particular. Then the boars began spawning. Picking up a pebble off the ground Rufure activated a sword skill.

"Stun Impact!" he called out as he threw the pebble. The small stone glowed a brilliant orange color and hit a boar straight in the face leaving a red wound marker. With fury in his eyes the boar turned towards Rufure and charged. Suddenly the boar fell to the ground paralyzed.

"Hah, fell right into the trap of Stun Impact" said Rufure walking up to his fallen opponent, "Paralyzes you as soon as you take the damage."

Taking out his sword Rufure stabbed the boar right through the chest killing it. His reward box informed him the boar was worth thirty experience and fifty col. "Not bad for my first kill," Rufure mused.

"Clean kill," said a voice behind Rufure. Turning around Rufure saw a girl walking up to him. She was about his height, had red colored hair, and was really attractive.

"Had practice recently? I don't think that I've seen any newbie have that clean of a kill before," she said when Rufure accepted the reward and started heading off. "Wait up. Were you in the beta test?"

As soon as the girl said that, Rufure stopped and turned around. "How could you have known that?" he asked.

"I was in it too. I thought you looked familiar. I've seen you in the beta walking around on a few floors. My name is Kaitlyn. Never got to actually meet you and chat since you were always running around," she said, holding out her hand hoping that he would take it in greeting.

There was a pause in the conversation when Rufure finally answered, "Rufure. Sorry about not really stopping to chat in the beta. I just wanted to get as far as I could before I had to start all over in here." He finally took Kaitlyn's hand and gave it a firm shake. "So how far did you get in the beta? Floor 8 for me".

"Nice," replied Kaitlyn. "The best I managed was floor 5."

Rufure showed a small grin. "That means I'm the stronger between the two of us."

"You are not!"

"You really just admitted to it."

Kaitlyn began reaching for her sword. "You want to duel to see who the stronger one is?"

"Sure," Rufure replied reaching for his sword as well. He opened his menu and selected the 'Duel' option. He decided that since this was his first duel since the beta tests he set the victory conditions to first strike so whoever's HP hit 50% first would lose. Sending the request over to Kaitlyn he waited for her to accept the terms.

After a minute, Kaitlyn sent a reply accepting the duel and the terms of first strike. The duel counter appeared and started counting down from sixty. Both former beta testers took hold of their weapons.

"Are you ready to lose your first real fight, Rufure?"

"Yeah, but I know it won't be this fight."

"Oh you are going down!"

As soon as the timer hit zero Kaitlyn drew her sword and charged. Rufure anticipating this quickly dodged her slash and struck low at the legs. He was rewarded with a small incision at the knee. Giving only a small grimace Kaitlyn turned and began using a sword skill. It took Rufure only a few seconds to recognize it as the base one-handed sword skill 'Rage Spike'. It wasn't an overly strong skill, but if it made contact in the correct spot it could be deadly. Kaitlyn's hand shot straight for Rufure's chest plate. Rufure, realizing where the skill was about to strike, quickly brought up his sword to defend. There was a loud clash of steel as the swords met.

One sword went flying through the air and landed blade first into the ground.

"You submit?" asked Rufure with his sword pointed at Kaitlyn's chest.

"Yeah," she replied. "You win."

"Victor: Rufure," buzzed the system as a purple messege box popped up declaring the winner.

When Kaitlyn walked over and retrived her sword from the ground she had a puzzled look on her face. "Hey Rufure," she asked as her sword slid back into its sheath. "How were you able to disarm me like that? I could have sworn that attack had you."

"Wait you didn't see it?" asked Rufure. "I just used a basic defensive sword skill. It's called Quick Guard. If you want I'm more than happy to teach it to you."

"Okay," replied Kaitlyn. "That sounds like a helpful skill."

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><p><em>One hour later…<em>

"There you go," said Rufure. "You've officially learned the 'Quick Guard' skill."

"Finally," panted Kaitlyn. "I thought it was going to take forever. Well I better logout now. My parents are probably wondering where the heck I am right now. Thanks for teaching me that skill."

Checking the clock in the corner of his sight Rufure realized it was almost five thirty. "Yeah same here. I better head home too." As he turned to leave he heard Kaitlyn call from behind him.

"Hey Rufure the logout button was on the main options menu right?" she asked. Confused, Rufure replied.

"Um, yeah. You mean to tell me you were a former beta tester and you can't remember where the logout button is."

Taken aback and mildly offended Kaitlyn responded. "I didn't forget. The button just isn't there."

"That's impossible," said Rufure as he brought his fingers down opening his menu. As soon as he looked in, what he saw confused him.

"It really isn't there. Wait a minute it could just be a bug in the system."

"No it isn't", said Kaitlyn folding her arms. "Argus, the company that owns SAO, is running it with a state of the art fool-proof system. Something like this shouldn't be capable of happening."

"Yeah," replied Rufure, "I heard about that too. This is a huge deal though. This could spell a problem for all games like SAO in the future."

"I know. I wonder how long it'll be till it's fixed," Kaitlyn asked. "Hang on, do you hear that?" Suddenly Kaitlyn and Rufure were surrounded in bright pillars of light. When the light cleared they found themselves in the town square of the Village of Beginnings.

"What just happened?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Someone just forced a teleport and it looks like it was throughout all servers. There is a lot more people here on this server than was thought to be held," Rufure replied. At the same time there were people questioning about the same event.

Looking around the square, Rufure and Kaitlyn saw a large multitude of players and even more still being teleported in. All the people seemed to know of the non-existent logout button and many were already yelling for the GMs to come out and explain.

"Why do you think it happened?" asked Kaitlyn tentatively.

"I have no clue. Look up there," Rufure said while pointing to the sky. A red hexagon was blinking, stating a 'Warning'. Another popped up saying 'System Announcement'. After a minute, the sky was a sea of red with the same messages over and over. Soon all the players quieted down believing they would finally have an explanation for why they couldn't log out.

At the same time, a thick, red liquid was dropping from the cracks of the messages to form a person with no face. His, or her, cloak draped over to only reveal hands with white gloves.

"Welcome to my world, dear players", said the floating red coat. This was the Game Master. "I am Akihiko Kayaba".

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><p><strong>So there ends my first chapter if you liked it please follow and review. Also later this story most likely will branch off from the original storyline of the show. I just wanted to get that out of the way first. With that said I hope you all will continue to follow and enjoy reading this as much as I will writing it.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys chapter 2 is done. Hope you enjoy.**

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><p>This was the Game Master. "I am Akihiko Kayaba."<p>

"I'm sure that most of you have noticed that a button is missing in your menus: the logout button. You may also think that it's some kind of bug that I could fix. I assure you that it isn't. It is a feature of sword art online. After you enter the game, you may never log out,"

"What the hell are you talking about!" yelled multiple players around the square. "I gotta get home I have a pizza coming!"yelled some redheaded guy towards the front. Several players turned and just stared at him.

Kayaba continued unfazed. "In addition if any one tries to remove your Nervegear via external means the high powered electrodes in the Nervegear will activate and destroy your brain."

This forced the entire crowd quiet. As every player began to feel either dread that what kayaba was saying was in fact true or this was just a gag for the opening ceremonies.

To prove to you all that SAO is now your reality. I have put an item in your inventory. Go on and take a look."

Slowly, the square was filled with soft chimes as everyone took a look at their inventory. Rufure and Kaitlyn looked and noticed that the item was a mirror. Holding it, Kaitlyn had noticed what happened around her. A blue light had surrounded everyone after they looked in the mirror.

"What's happening?!" Rufure yelled. At the same time, both Kaitlyn and Rufure had the light surround them. After a few moments, the light had faded from around them and a few others. Kaitlyn looks around to see that the people nearby had changed.

"Rufure? Where are you?" Kaitlyn had asked out loud.

"I was right next to you, Kaitlyn. Where are you?" Rufure turned to look at where Kaitlyn was and saw a girl who looked similar to her. She had noticed him and stopped in her tracks. "Kaitlyn?" Rufure asked. Once he said her name, she started blushing.

"Wow. You don't look much different. It's a good different though so-" Rufure was saying. He couldn't but the words together easily. Where Kaitlyn had been standing was now a slightly shorter girl with a few freckles dotting her face, and a somewhat darker shade of hair. There were a few other differences Rufure noted, but all in all Kaitlyn looked about the same.

Looking into his own mirtior Rufure noticed that he too had changed. The reflection showed a rounded face with the same usual short hair that never seemed to get any longer. He knew this face all too well. It was the face he had been trying to escape inside SAO.

"Oh my God! What happened to my hot face; and my sexy body!", cried somebody in the crowd. Looking around Rufure and Kaitlyn noted that the ratio of female to male players had shifted drastically.

"Why would he do this?", whispered Kaitlyn

"My guess is he is about to tell us". Sure enough after all the shouting about players' new identities died down kayaba resumed.

"I presume you are all asking the same question. Why would I, Akihiko Kayaba, for something like this? I did it so I could create a world intervene in it. Also I should mention there is one situation where you can log out." As soon as Kayaba said this all the players perked up. "The answer is simple. Clear all one hundred floors of Aincrad and you will all be freed".

"Clear Aincrad? That's insane! No one among the beta testers got anywhere near that high!", yelled the redhead player again.

Kayaba ignored this and continued. " To end these "opening ceremonies" I will leave you with the knowledge that should your HP bars hit zero the electrodes in the NerveGears will activate and stop your vital processes. And with that I wish you all the best of luck in conquering Aincrad."

When this was said Kayaba vanished. At first all the players were quiet, but after a few minutes were all shouting for Kayaba to return and admit that he was in fact joking about the whole thing. In the the enduing chaos Rufure grabbed Kaitlyn's hand and pulled her out of the massive crowd of players and into a side street.

"Kaitlyn?", he asked. "Do you think what Kayaba said is true?

"Part of me doesn't want to, but yeah I think it's real, Rufure. Sword Art Online is a game of death."

"Okay then, Kaitlyn", said Rufure. "If you want we can team up on the way to the next town. I have a good feeling all the quests in and around the Village of Beginnings are going to be taken up fast so if we work together we can be readily prepared to go into the dungeon and search for the floor one boss".

Kaitlyn thought about this for a minute then gave her reply. "Look, Rufure, I like you, you're really nice, a you helped with that sword skill, but like you I'm not used to group work. I think it will just be better if we go our separate ways from here".

" Ok , Kaitlyn, I understand just at least friend me so we can keep in touch. I'd feel better if we had some method of contact." Rufure sent the friend request over to Kaitlyn and she accepted it. "Well", said Rufure, "I guess we split up now". Kaitlyn nodded agreeing and turning around began to walk away.

"Hey, Kaitlyn!", called Rufure.

"What is it?" Asked Kaitlyn as she turned around.

"I just wanted to tell you. Your real life self is a lot prettier than your avatar."

Kaitlyn managed a smile after hearing this. "And you look much better than your avatar too", she replied. Turning around before Rufure could see the tears in her eyes Kaitlyn ran in the direction of one of the town's exits.

Moving towards a different exit Rufure looked out and saw more monsters beggining to spawn. "Alright", he said his face turning serious. "Time to conquer Aincrad!"

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><p><strong>Hope you all enjoyed. Daughter of the TARDIS and I tried to make Kayaba's speech as diverse from the original as we could so we wouldn't be copying. IDK when chapter three will be posted, but I assure you it's in the works. <strong>


	3. Not finished yet!

Hey, Friends, dunno if you are still reading this story or have moved on with your lives, but I have been busy these last few months and working on this story has been slipping my mind. Plus my Godmother gave me a new laptop to use and I can't get word on it and I cant upload from google drive. So I've spent the last year keeping my grades up and switching e-mail accounts. I'm planning on creating a new account here and re-uploading all of my old work to that account. It'll be a while before that account is running so please continue to be patient for me. Daughter of the TARDIS 11 is still here too but she is going to be gone most of the summer and I need her half of the current chapter.


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